Abstract:

The paper presents the results of an innovative project “Literature in the context of different cultures” Salon, that was launched at the Department of English for Mechanical Engineering at Bauman Moscow State Technical University (BMSTU) in 2014. Bauman University that trains top-notch experts in Science and Engineering has also developed its own educational standards in soft skills. Communication skills in oral and written forms both in Russian and in English are defined as key competencies for BMSTU students. These high standards with very little study time and the hardest curriculum make learning a foreign language rather complicated. Bauman educators of the English department have to actively tackle these challenges through combination of formal and informal techniques. A literary salon became an excellent students' extracurricular activity and a flexible tool of English language proficiency reinforcement. Its primary purpose is to shape the creative environment and enhance students' language learning possibilities. BMSTU students' schedule is highly concentrated; therefore, literary salon activities tend to be flexible and agile. Various forms of work such as literary soiree, stage performance, and musical sequences can be considered as alternative teaching approaches and usually depend on strategic and educational purposes. The mission of our literary salon is cross-cultural interaction, spiritual and moral development, soft skills cultivation, fostering communication, and mastering a language. A stage performance helps to remove a psychological barrier in communication and develop students' cognitive skills, first, a memory. English literary salon as a kind of non-formal, extra-curricular activity can affect English language learning positively and become a fabulous teaching tool and reinforcement. The main achievements of our students participating in the literary salon are staged versions of such masterpieces as "Much Ado about Nothing" and "The Taming of the Shrew" by Shakespeare; Arthur Conan Doyle's stories’ theatrical performance. It is impossible to study European literary tradition without Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and his El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. The literary soiree was dedicated to Miguel Cervantes's 470th Jubilee. Thus, incorporating informal education into a formal system of education should become a mainstream approach in the Russian system of tertiary education. Both formal and informal education settings offer different strengths to the educational process. While both curricular and extra-curricular programs serve students, many of them who feel disenfranchised in class blossom in after-class settings. Real learning can happen in a setting where students feel less intimidated or more comfortable than they do in a formal classroom. The ultimate goal is that their success in an informal setting can lead to greater confidence in the formal classroom. The authors share their successful teaching approaches and techniques practised in the literary salon and English club performances that can be applied by ELT educators from different countries.

Keywords:

Communication skills, English club, ESP, extracurricular activity, informal education, learning environment, literary salon, positive reinforcement, soft skills